February, 2000 
SCAMIT Newsletter 
Vol. 18, No. 10 
A somewhat more ambitious project is Helmut 
Debelius’ Crustacea - Guide of the World, 
published by IKAN - Unterwasserarchiv, 
Frankfurt. A book of 321 pages doesn’t have a 
snowball’s chance of actually describing [even 
briefly] the crustaceans of the world. The 
present volume, in that same length, 
concentrates on the decapods while also 
covering euphausiids, stomatopods, 
amphipods, isopods, cirripeds, mysids, and 
copepods. The title is appropriate in that the 
coverage is not limited to any particular 
geographic region, but coverage is incomplete 
for all regions in consequence. Over 1000 color 
photos, mostly in situ, are provided by the 
author. Remarks from those that have seen the 
volume are enthusiastic. The price is U.S. $45, 
or DM 70. 
The volume is available from the author at 
IKANUW@ aol .com. Other e-mail distributor 
contacts are: 
EUROPE: conchbooks@conchbooks.de 
(Klaus Groh) 
USA : fishid@leading.net (New World 
Publications) 
AUSTRALIA: oceans@netspace.net.au (Peter 
Stone) 
JAPAN: nexus@abox.so-net.ne.jp (Junko 
Maruoka) 
Notice and first impressions of the book were 
posted to the CrustL list server by Niel Bruce 
and Peter Wirtz. Most of the above comments 
are distilled from their notices. 
NEW LITERATURE 
The most recent issue of the Proceedings of the 
Biological Society of Washington had several 
papers of interest or concern to local 
taxonomists. Hauswaldt & Pearson (1999) 
describe a local diving-depth anemone which 
has been known for some time as Tealia (and 
later Urticina ) sp A in several programs. It is 
fitting that this has now been given the 
patronymic mcpeaki in honor of Ron McPeak, 
who has contributed greatly over the years to 
our knowledge of the kelp forest community 
in general, and its anthozoans in particular. The 
new species is most similar to U. lofotensis , but 
differs in the color pattern of the tentacles and 
oral disk. 
Deeper water anthozoans from off our shores 
were treated by White et al (1999). One of 
these, Anthosactis nomados is very similar in 
habitus to a more shallow water anemone taken 
off central California (the ‘brown tent 
anemone’). The later, however, was typically 
taken on rocks rather than on biological 
substrates. Mollusk shells, particularly those of 
the scaphopod Fissidentalium actiniophorum 
are the attachments for A. nomados , which 
appears to have a symbiotic relationship with 
the mollusk. Both the scaphopod and the 
anemone are creatures of the abyssal plain, 
while our ‘brown tent anemone’ is found on the 
outer continental shelf and the upper fringes of 
the continental slope. They are perhaps 
congeneric, but that remains to be proven. 
Hopefully John Ljubenkov will find the time to 
compare specimens of the shallow water 
species with this description of A. nomados. 
Another deep water mollusk-associated 
anemone, Monactis vestita, was also discussed 
by the authors. 
Mori (1999) reconsiders the caprellid 
amphipod genus Metacaprella during the 
course of description of a new species from 
Japan, Caprella kuroshio. He concludes that 
the abdominal appendage characters which 
were used as autapomorphies for the genus are 
not sufficient to separate it from other 
Caprella. In consequence he rejects use of the 
genus Metacaprella , treating its member 
species as belonging in Caprella. His evidence 
is considerable, and his argument persuasive. 
We will institute this change in edition 4 of the 
SCAMIT Taxonomic Listing. A few specimens 
of ‘Metacaprella’ have been taken in the 
southern California bight, but their numbers are 
low compared to those of the major Caprella 
species in the area. In the north, however, 
folding Metacaprella back to Caprella will 
have major database consequences. 
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